Arkansas Watch

Monday, December 31, 2007

Vintage Huckabee Falls Flat

Two posts down I wrote about how Mike Huckabee has a Clinton-like ability to play the snow-white victim, even while fighting hard and dirty. It looks like the national media is not falling for his schtick. His press conference in which he announced that he would not run his attack ads on Romney was greeted with the incredulity it deserved. Almost everything I talked about concerning Huckabee two posts down was on full display. Here is some video of the press conference.

I earlier reported that he gave a copy of the ad to the media, on re-hearing the tape after a prompt from C.B. I now understand that he did NOT give them a copy. It was played on a big screen in a room full of cameras though.

In a way, this is not good for my chosen candidate, Ron Paul. Paul needs Huckabee to win in Iowa in order to help keep Romney from building overwhelming early momentum. The longer this goes on, the better Paul will look and the more time the truth will have to come out. A longer race is a better race for candidates who are the real deal. Media creations who are phony conservatives want it to be over quick before folks get a good look at their actual records.

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Will They Exclude Ron Paul from N.H. Forum?

Two days before the critical New Hampshire primary, it appears that the New Hampshire Republican Party and Fox News are attempting to exclude Ron Paul from a candidate forum that they are co-hosting. The event will be held in a closed studio without a live audience- basically giving free extended air time to Paul's rivals for the nomination.

Fergus Cullen, the chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party, is attempting to deflect blame to Fox News for the omission. Sorry Mr. Chairman, when you co-host something you are putting your name on it. The party of personal responsibility cannot simply shift the blame for this ham-fisted outrage onto FAUX news.

There He (Huckabee) Goes Again

Mike Huckabee is an expert at (metaphorically) grabbing a guy by the nose and twisting hard. When the guy starts hollering and cussing at Huck for the assault, it draws a crowd of media. The Huckster then assumes a saintly pose and wonders aloud at why the other fellow is being so negative and angry. The average voter watches the Huckster's gentle response and goes, "Yeah, why can't they be more like that nice guy!".

It takes brazen nerve and overweening hypocrisy to pull off the Huckster's act. The same kind of nerve that Bill Clinton has when he makes some of his outrageous claims. Clinton made people angry that same way, and also knew how to paint himself as the aw-shucks victim when people responded with fury to his over-the-top claims and behavior. Funny thing is, some of the same folks in Arkansas who could not stand it when Bill Clinton did it to them are all for the Huckster as they watch him do it to other people. We are emotional rather than rational creatures, but as an old black pentecostal preacher I once knew said, "emotions make a good caboose but a bad engine".

Here is a quote from Huckabee “You are not going to find moments on YouTube of me saying something different about the sanctity of life today than I said ten years ago, ten minutes ago, or fifty years ago,” Mr. Huckabee said, referring to footage of Mr. Romney declaring his support for abortion rights—a position he later changed. “You are not going to find something in YouTube where I said something completely different about gun ownership and the second amendment than I did last week, ten weeks ago, ten years go.”

“You are not going to hear me making up stuff about my biography. I don’t go around saying I was lifelong golfer because I once rode in a golf cart when I was eight years old,” Mr. Huckabee said.

Well, we have already found him making up stuff about his biography, because he claimed he was "the only candidate with a theology degree" when in fact he was a communications major with an emphasis on religion. And while he has been fairly steady on abortion and gun control (stands which cost him ZERO political capital in Arkansas - in fact he could never have won office without them) I can find him saying vastly different things on illegal immigration than he was saying even two years ago, some of which are documented here.

Only the Clinton-Huckabee personality type can get away with saying (and believing their own baloney) things like “If a person is dishonest in his approach to get the job, do you believe he will be honest in telling you the truth when he does gets the job?,” as a slam on Mitt Romney. But Mike Huckabee repeatedly misrepresented the College for Illegal Aliens bill as being only for "merit scholarships" even after it was known that the actual bill called for in-state tuition breaks regardless of merit. He spoke of children who had been in U.S. schools since five or six when the actual bill was for any illegal who had evaded the law for three years and graduated from an Arkansas High School.

Only the Clinton-Huckabee personality type can run as a "local control of schools" candidate (which I heard him campaign on with my own ears) and then use the court ruling to enact a process that leads to the total loss of dozens of local schools and the increasingly centralized control of all of the rest. And not only can they act diametrically opposed to what they said they were when running, but they get highly indignant and offended when you call them on it. In their minds, you are the one with the nerve for reminding them of what they said and comparing it to what they did. They are never the ones with nerve for misrepresenting themselves, why they would never do that, they have a theology degree!

Democratic Congressmen Go Scrooge

Nine Democratic Congressmen who voted against a resolution acknowledging the importance of Christmas and Christianity voted in favor of similar resolutions for the Muslim holiday of Ramadan and the Hindu Festival of Lights.

If they just did not want to "discriminate" between any religion, I could understand it, but this is discrimination against one faith- Christianity.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

David Sanders Rejects "Christian Conservative" Label

David Sanders has sort of unofficially served as the house "Christian Conservative" for Stephens News Bureau. He was the one who represented the perspective of this large Arkansas constituency. David, while not ceasing to identify as either a conservative or a Christian, has formally rejected the label "Christian Conservative" or "Religious Right" to describe himself in this article called "Confessions of a former religious-right Christian conservative".

I have a considerable amount of sympathy with those in David's position. David Sanders realizes that the policy positions advocated by "Christian Conservative" leaders like Mike Huckabee are not conservative. This leaves Sanders to advocate for a separation between Christianity and politics in order to retain conservatism in government whilst maintaining Christianity in his personal walk.

The good news I have for him and all in his place is that he needn't make such a choice. Instead of rejecting the label "Christian Conservative", I reject the idea that this label applies to the polices of those who claim it, such as George Bush and Mike Huckabee. This is not to say that these men are not Christians in their personal walk- I can't judge that. I can only judge their policies, and on this basis there can be no doubt that these men do not govern biblically. They only govern according to what the pop culture mistakenly thinks the Bible says about given issues.

The political leaders of the "Christian Right" have done to that term essentially the same thing that homosexual activists have done to the word "gay". I am not so invested in that latter term, so I won't bother correcting the record about what "gay" really meant. For the sake of the Lord and my fellow man, I am invested in what the terms "Christian" and "Conservative" mean so I will contest them on that one. I want to reclaim the term from those who use it falsely or ignorantly.

For example, Sanders fears that Christian's concern for the poor will lead them to support expensive nanny-state welfare polices such as those advocated by Mike Huckabee. But such policies are not biblical and in no way should they be a part of a "Christian" political movement, only a statist political movement which attempts to hijack the name "Christian" for its own gain.

Another example: Some have argued that the scriptures teach that we should treat illegal aliens to all the benefits that legal citizens have. Again, they apply the scripture either falsely or in ignorance of what it actually says, as this nine minute audio file makes clear.

The Bible simply says too much about government for a Christian to ignore it and separate their politics from their faith. The answer is not to separate the two, but harmonize them under God's Word rightly divined.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

What I Think Happened

I only have evidence for the idea that the GOP conspires to advance some candidates while working against others or leaving them to twist in the wind. I don't know if the thoughts I am about to share reflect what is actually happening with Huckabee- they are what I think is happening.

The Republican establishment tried to ram Rudy down the throat of the grassroots. It turned out that no amount of hitting the "Hillary Fear Button" could induce them to support him. Fellow CFR member Romney would have been OK too, but voters don't trust him either and seem to like him even less (I admire MR life of personal virtue, but Rudy has the charm). So they are having a problem with the grassroots. So they went to plan "C". Take a long-time Washington lobbyist whose short record in the Senate was more liberal than average for most of his years and re-package him as "the next Ronald Reagan". That plan, while it has not yet failed completely, is going very badly.

The establishment has to have a nominee, if for no other reason than to keep Paul from winning it. So, they started pumping up Mike Huckabee. Suddenly, he got lots of favorable air time and he has the personal tool set to use it to great advantage. But I don't think they wanted him to be the nominee. I think they wanted to pump him up enough to make him a viable VICE-presidential candidate. They wanted him to get on the ticket with Rudy in the hopes that this would make the GOP ticket palatable to religious right voters. They would then attempt to re-ram Rudy, because they are starting to run out of options.

It seems their plan to pump up Huckabee worked too well. They under-estimated the grassroots discontent. The Christian Right voters were so hungry for a candidate that they flocked to him. He gained too much momentum. That is why the GOP establishment media, almost on a dime and in near-unison, turned on Huckabee. His press is now almost unrelentingly negative. Of course, his actual record has a lot of negatives in it, including personal greed. But those are the kind of candidates that the establishment likes. They like advancing the careers of people that they "have the goods on". It makes them more pliable at crunch time. Witness the large number of sex scandals among some of the former GOP golden boys.

Mike Huckabee has shown the "moral flexibility" they are looking for in the person that they designate to placate Christian voters, but he has also shown some tendencies they would find troubling. He has a recurring history of betraying those who help him and going out of his way to please his enemies. They would not mind if this tendency only applied to letting down Christian voters- those chumps are just there for using anyway. But Huckabee has shown an equal willingness to turn on his corporate sponsors. We recently learned that R.J. Reynolds was one of his biggest early financial supporters, but now he is anti-tobacco all the way. His record with Arkansas business is also spotty. Sure he did all he could to keep them supplied with cheap illegal labor and helped the bond houses by paying them to sell debt even when we had the money on hand, but he blew off the Murphy Commission and let them down in other ways.

These big players are used to having politicians they can count on. Huckabee is hit-and-miss for them. Lately, he has been trying to show them his reliability and ease their minds (hoping I suppose that they will back off). Even though he is not a CFR member (limited to 3000 and he was not big enough until recently) he is now touting Richard Haas and other CFR members as his policy advisers.

Hendren for Romney in Iowa

More Arkansas Republicans in Iowa. ....

It has not gone without notice that the Hutchinson clan has disbursed their political endorsements around so that almost no matter who wins the nomination, they have a family foot in the door. The elder Hutchinson's support Mike Huckabee, the younger (who actually had to serve in the legislature with Huckabee as Governor) support Fred Thompson. Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe Donna supports Guiliani. And in-law Jim Hendren, house minority leader under Huckabee, has been doing recorded calls for Mitt Romney in Iowa.

The Iowa-based coolercaucus blogspot reports.....

"Jim Hendren, the Arkansas state House minority leader while Huckabee was governor, does the talking.

"I saw first-hand what Mike Huckabee did to our state," Hendren says, before ticking off the now-familiar shots at Huckabee's tax and spending record.

Coming Retailer Tax Nightmare

Starting Jan. 1st the way the sales tax is calculated is going to be changed for "delivered goods". Going forward, the retailer should charge you the sales tax rate where the delivery is going, not the tax rate at the store location. This is a ham-fisted approach to moving toward sales taxes on internet sales.

What it means for any business that delivers merchandise, such as a furniture store, is that there is a soon coming retail nightmare. All such businesses will almost certainly make mistakes in attempting to follow the complex new law. Once the laws are so complex that we all break them, then we are all criminals and the government can choose to arrest us for our "crimes" any time they wish. What a great system for crushing dissent!

Say I own a furniture store in Bentonville. Someone comes in from Eureka Springs and wants to buy furniture. If they pick it up, I am supposed to charge them Bentonville sales tax, if they want it delivered, Eureka Springs sales tax. The software to support this is either non-existent or not installed in the vast majority of businesses in this state. It might be manageable if there was a constantly updated list of sales taxes for various zip codes in the state, but some zip codes may have varying tax rates. Rates change in mid-year. People may not know what the exact rate is in their city. Some states have not signed onto this deal yet, so deliveries to those areas are taxed like pick-ups. And each business is supposed to track when they should do what.

If they want to tax internet sales, there are simpler ways of doing it. Our legislature seems to have only two settings. They either write legislation that is exactly what an industry wants- forget the consumer, or they write one that will hammer an industry with little thought to the actual burden inflicted on them in following the law.

Dim Bulbs Outlaw Light Bulbs

When incandescent light bulbs are against the law, then only outlaws will have incandescent light bulbs!************************************Congress has passed, and President Bush has indicated that he will sign, a law which will ban the incandescent light bulbs currently in your homes. The bulbs will be phased out over the next 4-12 years. The only type of bulb which currently meets the efficiency standards set to take effect in 2020 are fluorescents, which cast a chartreuse-tinted light and contain mercury.

On the heels of this legislative genius is the law directing each and every model of vehicle (car-light truck) sold in the United States to get 35 miles per gallon. I don't mean that should be the average of the line, I mean that no auto maker can sell a model of vehicle that gets lower gas mileage. I can only presume that the legislation contains exemptions for our valued government leaders and their bullet-proof limousines. This is coming in two years. I think it will be even more popular with Americans than those new federally-mandated "water saver" toilets that you have to flush twice.

My friends, it is my desire to respect and honor our government leaders. That is what the Good Book commands us to do. Nevertheless I must confess my sin here, I am not up to the task. I cannot do what I ought without God's help, due to a combination of my own sinful impatience and the idiocy, corruption, and lawlessness of their policies. They make it too hard for me to do what I ought as consistently as I should.

Is there anyone out there who can honestly say they believe this is what the Founding Fathers risked their "lives, their fortunes, and their sacred Honor" for? Does anyone, anyone I say, believe that the Constitution they established authorizes the Federal Government in Washington D.C. to tell someone in Maynard, Arkansas what kind of light bulbs he is permitted to illuminate his own home with; what sort of toilet he must have, and the miles per gallon that his car must attain? No I say. No. The shackles and intrusions of the British King, which our noble forbears found intolerable and violently cast off, were not one tenth of those we now endure from our own federal government.

How can those statesmen know the needs of each citizen in directing these matters? Does a farm truck that is driven 20 miles per week at 20 miles per gallon pollute less than a car which gets double the gas mileage but drives triple the miles? So they actually limit the choices of a man who needs more horsepower but drives fewer miles. When blizzards come, who is not glad that they know at least one citizens with a powerful truck to pull them out of the ditch? No more I suppose, for they would have it that we can only turn to the government for help, not each other.

They claim the incandescent bulbs are "less efficient", but that assumes that all anybody ever wants from them is the light. The rest of their energy is released as heat, but in cold climates and cold seasons what is wrong with that? The "more efficient" bulbs that release less heat will only cause the thermostat to kick on a bit more often than if we had "less efficient" bulbs which also contributed some heat.

Washington can't know all the details of our situation, so it should not try to dictate all of our choices. Charge us what the energy costs and when it gets better for us to change bulbs then we will. Instead, Washington wants to tax half of us to subsidize the energy costs for the other half and then, since it has removed the free-market incentive to conserve energy, replace the market with centrally directed mandates for all. They have gone mad I tell you. Drunk with power and corruption.

And make no mistake, this legislation is corrupt. Corrupt to the core. The patents for the incandescent bulb have long expired. Big corporations have a very low profit margin on these items because anyone can make them. But there is much money to be made by forcing everyone into switching to the new types of bulbs before the patents on those expire as well. Lots of companies have much to gain from bribing the government into forcing you to switch to higher-margin products. Thus, under the cloak of concern for the environment and energy conservation, those hirelings in Washington have again done the bidding of their corporate masters at our expense.

The only candidate for President I have seen who even expresses that they understand what the problem is and shows any desire to fix it is Ron Paul. This is part of why I believe that all patriotic Americans must put aside their differences with the Congressman and get behind him. The federal government has slipped its chains and the beast has turned 'round on it's supposed master (we the People). Paul is the only one who even wants to stop it.

Friday, December 21, 2007

Huckabee Sued Over Mexican Conulate in LR

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Dueling Arkansas Republicans In Iowa Part II

The ArkJournal blog put us onto this video of the dueling Arkansas Republicans in Iowa. Complete audio can be found here.

On the "Huckabee is Good" side are State Senator and former state GOP Chairman Gilbert Baker of Conway and former State Rep. and Governor's "Floor Leader" Doug Matayo of Siloam Springs. On the "Huckabee is a Pro-Life Liberal" side we have former State Rep. Randy Minton of Jacksonville and former State Senator Jim Holt of Springdale, winner of two state-wide GOP primaries.

Look at the body language and listen to the tone as well as what they are claiming. Gilbert Baker especially seems jumpy and nervous. Holt and Minton are both calm and there is a bit of an "on a mission" feel to them. Baker and Matayo don't seem so convinced of what they are saying- nor should they. Witness the absurdity of (for one) Baker's claim that the taxpayers of Arkansas paying for a Consulate for the Mexican Government in Little Rock would somehow help us catch illegal aliens!

Monday, December 17, 2007

Sheppard Named Ron Paul State Coordinator

The Paul campaign has tapped Jason Sheppard of Fayetteville to head the official Ron Paul for President Campaign in Arkansas.

“Jason has already proven that he knows what it takes to win a state-wide Republican primary. That is what we were looking for, a proven winner.” said Assistant National Director Debbie Hopper. Hopper was referring to the 2004 campaign where Sheppard managed the Republican's 2004 U.S. Senate campaign for Arkansas, guiding it through a 3-way primary without a runoff. Sheppard hopes to repeat that success in Arkansas for Ron Paul.

Sheppard immediately tapped Skip Cook to be campaign spokesman. Cook knows about grassroots campaigning in Arkansas and he reaches out to all sides of the political spectrum. He ran the successful campaign to implement term limits in Arkansas.

“Congressman Ron Paul is the champion of the constitution and of limited government” said Cook, “He has wide appeal”.

A ten term congressman from Texas, Ron Paul has never voted for a pay raise, has never voted for an unbalanced budget, and does not participate in the lucrative congressional pension program. A veteran who served during the Vietnam War, Paul is a strong opponent of using American troops to police the world, and instead wants to focus on border security and curtailing illegal immigration. His pro-life record is bolstered by his life’s work- Paul is an OB/GYN who has delivered over 4,000 babies. He and his wife, Carol, have been married for 50 years and have five children and 18 grandchildren.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

TeaParty 07 May be Biggest Money Bomb Yet

"Both Parties Want War so They Drop That BombRonPaul2008.com"

"Most Politicians lie so they make that dimeRonPaul2008.com"

- hip hop singer King Solomon

The anniversary of the Boston Tea Party is December 16th. Online supporters of Republican Presidential Candidate Congressman Ron Paul are trying to make it the biggest single day of donations ever. The last "money bomb" day raised $4.3 million. You can track Paul's donations minute by minute if you want to see how the money bomb is doing over the next 24 hours. He starts with 11.5 million dollars raised this quarter, which is likely more than the other Republicans to start with. We will see how much he gains with the "Boston Tea Party" bomb.

Acambaro Raids Part II

As more facts roll in, some things become more apparent about the raids on Acambaro for employing illegal aliens. One clue are the reports that Acambaro was paying its employees cash under the table. Tyson's et al would never make that mistake. The government is going to come down hardest on the criminals who don't give it their proper share of the take. Better to employee them above the tables, say have 25 employees with a Social Security number of 000 00 0000. As long as you are paying into the system, the system might let you alone.

The second thing is that the police got wise when many people they were arresting for other crimes turned out to be illegal aliens who were working at Acambaro. B-b-but, I thought they were just hard working folks who were only trying to make a better life for themselves? Do you mean to tell me that folks who would break into another country illegally would also be more likely to break other laws once here? Who could have guessed that?

Friday, December 14, 2007

Dueling Arkansas Republicans In Iowa

It is well known in Republican circles that former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee feuded with the conservative members of the state Republican party during his tenure. The Ron Paul for President campaign wanted Iowans to know it too. They recently hired two former Arkansas legislators: Representative Randy Minton and State Senator Jim Holt to spend a week in Iowa telling people about the Mike Huckabee they knew. "He campaigned right and governed left" Holt told Iowans this week. Holt and Huckabee most often clashed over spending, education, and of course, illegal immigration. Minton now serves with the Arkansas Republican Assembly, whose conservative members are full of angst for the former Governor.

Huckabee did not take it lying down. He brought in several ringers of his own to tell his side of it. They include current Senator Gilber Baker, along with former legislators Doyle Webb and Doug Matayo.

MY BRILLIANT WIFE FOUND AUDIO OF THE DUELING ARKANSAS REPUBLICANSHERE.

How to Win a Tax Election

I talked to a friend in Little Rock about the near-secret tax election for Little Rock Libraries that passed this month. It is a textbook case of how to win a tax election for a narrow special interest.....

*First, have it in December when the average voter is paying the least attention.

*With the help of a complicit establishment media, downplay the election so that most of the general public is not even aware there is one coming until the week before (too late for any opposition to get organized).

*At that point, use taxpayer dollars to print up notices to hang in the taxpayer funded facilities urging the patrons to vote for the tax (since they are the minority that use the service, they will be more inclined to do so).

*Meanwhile, your complicit buddies in the media come out the last week and give completely one-sided "reports" that are de-facto campaign ads for the tax increase.

*As per SOP, hide behind "The Children"

*Last but not least, mysteriously insure that the residents of retirement homes turnout in massive numbers to absentee vote in this election, and that in an amazing show of unity of thought, that they vote 100% in favor of your proposal.

And that is how you pass a special interest tax increase in Little Rock Arkansas.

Undereported Poll on Illegal Aliens

OneNewsNow gives the details on an under-reported poll which shows that overwhelming majorities of Americans do not want to pay for public benefits to illegal aliens. The elites continue to ignore their subjects and push ahead with their North American Union.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Huckabee, Mormonism, and Religion

When Mike Huckabee asked "Don't Mormons believe that Christ and Lucifer were brothers?" I thought he asked an honest question that anyone has the right to ask. Under fire in a society that no longer tolerates honest questions about religion, lest they be forced to face some honest answers, Mike Huckabee apologized.

I saw the corporate media banging on him again and again for daring to ask the question. None of them seemed to want to ask Mormon Stake President Romney or any other official of the Mormon church one simple question- Is that truly what your church believes?

The fact is, they do believe it. To be precise, they say, "On first hearing, the doctrine that Lucifer and our Lord, Jesus Christ, are brothers may seem surprising to some—especially to those unacquainted with latter-day revelations. But both the scriptures and the prophets affirm that Jesus Christ and Lucifer are indeed offspring of our Heavenly Father and, therefore, spirit brothers. Jesus Christ was with the Father from the beginning. Lucifer, too, was an angel “who was in authority in the presence of God,” a “son of the morning.” (See Isa. 14:12; D&C 76:25–27.) Both Jesus and Lucifer were strong leaders with great knowledge and influence. But as the Firstborn of the Father, Jesus was Lucifer’s older brother."

But maybe the point of outrage from the secular media wasn't whether or not Romney believes it, but rather that a person's religious beliefs should have any bearing in the matter of evaluating their fitness for public office. The secular media are just that, secular and radically so. They demand people compartmentalize their "religious life" from "real life" in a hermetically-sealed mental envelope. They are outraged at the thought that anything one claims to believe about God could effect anything that one claims to believe about government. Under that standard, religious beliefs, being irrelevant, should be left alone.

Collateral Damage (Banks' Bad Loans)

The money that the big banks lost in the ongoing housing meltdown is going to come out of our pockets with the help of "your" government. It is being done indirectly, so as not to illicit the well-deserved outrage this move would incur if it were done openly. Still, few in the corporate media will tell you how the shell game is going to go down. The big media people and the big bank people both have an interest in keeping the shell game hidden. Don't expect them to inform you of this. Their real goal may even be to conceal this information from you while blathering endlessly about the horse-race aspects of the Presidential campaign or even the latest rehab antics of some pop-tart.

A clue can be found here (under the headline "Central Banks Pumping Billions into Banking System"), where the writer says of the huge money auctions now in progress, "The auctions held by the Fed will set interest rates on borrowings by banks from the Fed. The banks will be able to post any collateral they wish, including illiquid securities such as collateralized debt obligations, as they now can do at the discount window. But while it often becomes known which banks borrow at the discount window, the auction procedures are designed to keep the identities of the borrowers secret."

Don't get distracted by the showy wave of the magician's hand, follow the money..

(continued- click WEDNESDAY below and scroll down for rest of article.)

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Thompson Campaign Signs Up G.P. Bush

George Bush has been named head of "Young Professionals for Thompson". That is George Prescott Bush, Jeb's son. Apparently, Thompson's folks see it as a plus to be associated with the Bush's, including members of family whose immigration rhetoric is 100% guaranteed to offend the base.

Acambaro Raids

The whole area is talking about the raids on the Acambaro restaurants. In addition to the properties listed in the paper, I can confirm that the newest one in Pea Ridge is closed (the sign says "closed for repairs").

Apparently there were numerous flagrant violations of the law, besides simply crossing the border. Identity theft and fraud are just two of the things that come with this dirty business.

It has been noted more than once that the really big-money employers of illegals appear to be escaping these round-ups. I applaud the enforcement of the law, but of course in order to be just the law must be applied equally.

My sympathy is with the law-abiding business owners who have had to compete against Acambaro on an unlevel playing field. As far as the employees go, we are not sending them to the gallows, or even prison. Just back to their own country, a place many Americans choose to go on vacation.

Besides a desire for equal enforcement against the biggest law-breakers, I do have one serious qualm. It seems the feds have filed an affidavit in support of a complaint for forfeiture of 11 properties owned by the Reyes family. Forfeiture was requested because the properties were purchased "with monies derived from ... the proceeds of conspiracy to commit an offense or defraud the United States, namely identity theft, possession and use of counterfeit identity documents, employment eligibility verification fraud and money laundering." I am very leery about the policy of the government seizing property of accused persons before they have been found guilty by a jury of their peers. The elder Reyes at least, is here legally and I believe it is unconstitutional to take property from an accused person simply based on an affidavit signed by a government official which claims that the government should get all of your property just because they suspect you got the money for it by criminal activity.

Sunday, December 09, 2007

Excuses on Ilegals are DOA

Governor Mike Beebe offered a series of Dead on Arrival excuses for his dogged unwillingness to protect the people of Arkansas from a tidal wave of illegal aliens. As the Governor's of neighboring states like Oklahoma take increasingly effective measures to protect their citizens, we can expect even more displaced illegals to flood our "sanctuary state".

Mike Beebe does not give Tyson Foods and the other big business interests who he serves excuses, he gives them results. It's the little guys who get the steady stream of excuses from Beebe, and we will continue to get them for as long as we accept them.

First Beebe said there was not enough jail space for all of them and that we would have to let rapists and killers free to accommodate them. I don't believe the Governor, especially since not all would be apprehended at once and many would self-deport once our "sanctuary state" status was revoked. Even if he was right, he was asked if he would delay funding preschool and use those moneys to pay the costs associated with enforcing the law regarding illegal aliens. Of course he refused. He said he was not going to "cut" "education" spending. Many of these dollars are not being spent yet. He wants to EXPAND pre-school, and yet somehow not expanding it is redefined as a "cut".

I also take issue with the idea that these are 'education' dollars. This is state sponsored child care. Once again, the corporations want an expanded labor pool to depress wages. They want women in the workforce, not raising their own children in their own home. So they propose taxing families who raise their own children in their own home in order to subsidize those who wish to institutionalize their three year old children in a government facility. That will encourage more women to get out into the workforce, earn dollars and pay more taxes, all the while adding to the labor pool so as to depress wages and salaries. The government wins, the corporations win. The children? Well, they lose big time, but they won't be eligible to vote anytime soon. You can count on Mike Beebe to do what the big corporations want.

When asked by another caller why he did not make it against the law, as in other states, for illegals to obtain state services, Beebe once again said he did not want to "raise your taxes" to enforce the law that the Feds should be enforcing. Hello? By taking pains to get illegals off of government benefits it is likely you are going to SAVE US more money than it costs. A straight answer is that Mike Beebe is willing to raise your taxes in order to continue servicing illegal aliens with state benefits, if that is what it takes to keep certain business interests around here happy.

Ongoing Blindness on "Evolution of Sight"

Mouth of a lamprey, and amazingly, the hagfish is even uglier!*********************************News Scientist breathlessly proclaims that a study of lampreys and the even nastier hagfish have shed light on the evolution of vertebrate eyesight. Instead, all they have done is demonstrate once again that the evolutionary scientists are themselves blind to what the evidence is telling them. They simply cannot see what evidence is saying outside of one narrow interpretation.

A scientist did a study of hagfish and lamprey DNA. The expected result was that the deep-dwelling hagfish was an offshoot of lampreys. The actual result did not show that. Nor did it show that the lamprey was an evolutionary offshoot of the hagfish. Instead, it shows what the evidence almost invariably shows (except when comparing creatures within the same genus)- neither group is derived from the other. They are "sister" groups.

This is the latest example of a pattern that has been continuing for years. Once evolutionists found out how to analyze DNA they thought they would have a field day finding "mother" groups and "daughter" groups which descended from some small offshoot of the mother group. The evidence has repeatedly and consistently falsified that assumption. They find almost exclusively "sisters". Neither group descended from the other. At that point they simply ASSUME that there is an unknown common ancestor of both groups and ask for more funding. This has been going on for years.

The fact that the evidence falsifies their assumptions does not seem to phase the scientists. Their thinking continues right along in the confines of macro-evolutionary theory blissfully undisturbed by the facts that their research uncovers. Much easier to hold on to funding that way.

In this case, the hagfish eye is a much simpler and less effective organ than that of the lamprey (understandable, since there is little light at the depths of the hagfishs' habitat). Back when they thought the hagfish was a "daughter group" of the lamprey, they thought this simpler eye was an example of de-evolution. The organ was degraded over time.

Now if they had found that lampreys were the daughter group, they might have evidence to support the idea that the more complex lamprey eye evolved from the simple hagfish eye. Of course they did not find that, but they are claiming it anyway. Their idea is that, since macro-evolution must be true, if hagfish and lampreys did not come from each other, then they must have come from an unknown common ancestor. And since this ancestor would be more primitive than either living group, its eye would be more like that of the hagfish. Therefore the hagfish eye represents not a degraded lamprey eye, but the eye of the unknown common ancestor. Seriously. That is what they think the study shows. The actual research showed that neither group descended from the other, but based on the ASSUMPTION that "evolution must be true" they STILL spin this study into "evidence" for evolution.

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Eight Minute Cartoon Banned by Mormon Church

On the day when Mormon Stake President (about like a Bishop in the Catholic Church) Mitt Romney waxed eloquent with his speech on religious tolerance, we offer you an eight minute cartoon that will show you what exactly they are insisting you should be tolerating....

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

College Money for Everyone

A lady I worked with told me that she was going back to school. She is over 60. Nothing serious, she just wants to paint again and so she was going to sign up for art classes. "It's free because I am over 60" she smiled. "You are welcome" I replied. She looked a bit confused at that. "Nothing is really free. It just seems free to you because other people- like me- are being taxed to pay for it". It did not seem to phase her.

Thieving politicians bribe older people with "entitlements" because they are the ones most likely to vote. Also, all of these thieving politicians want to be "for education". But if you will think about it, few things make less sense that to raise the taxes of young people struggling to survive and raise children so that people over 60 can take college classes simply for personal amusement because someone else is picking up the tab. It is welfare for liberal college professors who already make more money than they should in a free-market where everyone pays their own money for what the liberal professors offer. They prefer an economy where their customers use someone else's money- that is always good for business.

When I was teaching, I did some masters work. They told me that since I was a teacher, my college courses were "free" if I applied. I never did. I paid my own tuition. I figured that graduate-school education was for my benefit, and it was wrong to tax some poor guy who worked in a fish-house so that he could send me through college.

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Is a Vote for Huckabee a Vote for Guiliani?

I have seen increasing signs that Mike Huckabee is creeping towards an alliance with Rudy Guiliani. It would make perfect sense. The only guy who really has the money and reach to challenge Guiliani nation-wide is Romney. Romney has stacked most of his chips on an "early-states" strategy. Guiliani has stacked his chips on a "big states, nation wide campaign" strategy. But to do that, Guiliani has sacrificed the early states. His biggest threat is that Romney would ride the momentum of several early wins into national contention and make the race mano-e-mano between the two.

What Guiliani wants at this stage of the game is for the first five states to have several winners, which would deny overwhelming momentum to any single rival. Then on Mega-Tuesday he can assert his dominance over a field of relative midgets.

Huckabee can be of great help to Guiliani. Whereas Romney has an "early-states" strategy, Huckabee has only an "early-state" (singular) strategy. For Huckabee it is all about winning Iowa. He has no significant organization in any other state (except here perhaps), nor funding to build one. The odds of parlaying an Iowa victory into an outright nomination under these conditions are remote. He can hope the field stays fragmented and he gets enough delegates to win at a brokered convention. More likely is a shot at VP, on a Guiliani ticket.

It has been often commented that adding Huckabee to a Guiliani ticket would (in the minds of insiders) mollify the Christian right into supporting Guiliani. They complement one another by appealing to different parts of the GOP coalition. While Guiliani and Romney trade body blows, Huckabee goes out of his way to avoid being critical of Guiliani, and campaigns right where it hurts Romney the most- Iowa.

Huckabee would not even say a critical word about the brewing scandal of Guiliani using taxpayer money on his mistress- money that was hidden by someone in obscure NY city accounts. Instead, Huckabee seemed to take up for Rudy, saying that the executive can't track every detail and it could happen to anyone. Huckabee has also been known for being light on policy and heavy on guffaws- perfect for a VP candidate.

We should watch in coming days to see if the two are willing to go after each other on policy like they go after other candidates. I fear a dark coalition is in the works. An effort to rope the Christian Right into supporting Huckabee, and then once Huckabee has them he leads them right into the arms of Guiliani. Huckabee may be what the secular GOP is counting on to get the Christian Right to do the one thing that many promised they would never do- support a GOP Presidential ticket with Rudy at the head.

Clinton Fundraiser Indicted

The brazen law-breaking of the Clinton Crime Machine never ceases to amaze and disgust me. Likewise the "light touch" given the story from the establishment media which works so hard to protect the Clinton's. I am talking about this story, where her top-drawer donor has been indicted for stealing 20 million dollars and systematic violations of campaign finance laws. The corporate media has given Ron Paul more heat for telling the truth about the NAFTA highway than they have Hillary Clinton for accepting big money from a crook. You had pennyless workers contributing thousands of dollars to Hillary. You had money coming from Chinese citizens.

Despite the chi-com fundraising scandals of the last Clinton administration (remember John Haung?), the corporate media is assiduously avoiding any suggestion of connecting dots. Sure, they report that the guy is being indicted, and that he gave Hillary! money, but they are not demanding answers of her as to what she knew and when she knew it. They will stick a microphone in Ron Paul's face and ask him if he is a kook for believing their is a plot to create a "North American Union" but they never stick a microphone in Hillary's face and ask her if she is a crook due to her constant and systematic receipt of illegal campaign contributions. Never mind that former Mexican President Vicente Fox got on Larry King Live and stated that such a union was the long long range goal. Mitt Romney gets more hostile questions over his lawn service than Hillary does after being caught again in a huge illegal donation scheme.

Monday, December 03, 2007

NAFTA Superhighway is Real

VIDEO: Official from the Canadian province of Manitobia makes an official address in which he discusses (favorably) the coming NAFTA highway. This is interspersed with evasive yet dismissive answers about the project from President Bush and the Canadian PM.************************************

While various persons in the government and the media are brazenly denying the existence of plans for a NAFTA Superhighway (whatever they call it) and an eventual North American Union, it is happening right in front of us. I am completely fed up with the people who insinuate that Ron Paul is crazy to warn us about this project and our ongoing loss of sovereignty. I am losing my patience with their irrational claims and behavior.

Insanity is an inability or unwillingness to perceive reality to such a degree that it interferes with one's ability to function. By that definition, those who deny there is an ongoing plot to form us into a single economic union with other countries in this hemisphere are the insane ones. They are in denial, so they lash out at the people attempting an intervention. I am very frustrated when I hear these insane people accusing Ron Paul of being crazy. The reason most people choose denial is as a psychological defense. This happens when the knowledge, if accepted, would obligate them to face things they don't wish to face or take responsible actions that they do not wish to take. In order to avoid this, they just keep their eyes and ears closed and repeat over and over "its a conspiracy theory, the guy is a nut. Nutnutnutnutnutnutnut."

I already showed you video of former Mexican President Vicente Fox on Larry King Live admitting that an EU-style government with a single currency was the long range goal. The supra-national highway system, with "inland ports", is one of the key steps in the plan. The "Trans Texas Corridor" is just one stretch of this coming road. Naturally they are going to build connections among the high traffic areas first. These regional toll roads will have local names, but they plan to connect them all eventually. The goal is one international border-free highway from Mexican ports to so-called "inland ports" in the U.S. and Canada. It is about getting Chi-com goods to U.S. markets without going through U.S. longshoremen or stopping for inspections at what were once at least semi-functional national borders.

The most important issue of this election is one most of the population is not even aware of- whether or not the United States of America will continue as a sovereign nation in which our own Constitution is the supreme law of the land or whether we will be absorbed into a super-national organization akin to the EU. The EU started as a trade agreement. Once it got momentum and a source of tax funding there was no stopping it- even when the people of various nations voted it down time after time the big-government types just kept advancing. We cannot wait until that point to put the brakes on their plans here.

The wisest thing in the world is to cry out before you are hurt. It is no good to cry out after you are hurt; especially after you are mortally hurt. People talk about the impatience of the populace; but sound historians know that most tyrannies have been possible because men moved too late. It is often essential to resist a tyranny before it exists. It is no answer to say, with a distant optimism, that the scheme is only in the air. A blow from a hatchet can only be parried while it is in the air.- G.K. Chesterton